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Mr. Nandan Nilekani

Reading success stories of greatest professionals stimulates motivational enzyme within us and we all wish to emulate them on path of success.

Exactly with this aim MBA Rendezvous - India's content lead MBA website is presenting you series of success stories of Professionals who have carved niche in their own way and have become icons of Management Fraternity.

Following above, you will read today success story of Mr. Nandan Nilekani :

Inspirational leader, visionary entrepreneur - these are some of the adjectives used for Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of the maiden project Unique Identification Authority of India.

He was given this role by Union Government after a successful stint with leading IT solutions provider Infosys. It was his able leadership which steadied the boat at Infosys after the leadership of Narayan Murthy.

In the growing up years, Nilekani has studied in the best of educational institutes. He completed schooling from Bishop Cotton Boys’ School and St. Joseph’s High School Dharwad, going on to take a degree in Electrical Engineering at IIT Mumbai.

With his experience of learning and working, he has constantly realised the importance of good education and quality infrastructure, which reflects in his style of work. He is a person who does not believe in simply sitting at the top, but getting work done at the grass root level. Interestingly, he was influenced by Fabian Socialist Ideals in the formative years.

Nilekani is one of the few people who have shown that the system can be modified to meet developmental objectives. Another person who has done the same successfully is E. Sreedharan, the person behind Konkan Railways and Delhi Metro.

Nandan has managed to complete the task of getting Identification information from 46 crore Indians already and is on course to prepare 60 crore Aadhar numbers well before date. It is a significant achievement to undertake such a gigantic task and to get it completed on time.

In the year 2009, he came up with a book that outlines his vision for a developing nation, titled Imagining India. Here he makes special mention of the young urban working population, which has the potential of guiding India towards a stable future.

As per statistics, more than 65% of the country’s population is below the age of 40 years. This can be further ascertained by looking at the number of young people who have voted during the recent Delhi elections.

For his leadership par excellence and exemplary work, Nilekani has received numerous awards from the Government and private institutions. Some of these are as follows:

• Given the Padma Bhushan, highest civilian award, in 2006.

• Businessman of the Year by Forbes Asia- 2006

• Legend in Leadership Award- Yale University- 2009

• Honorary Doctor of Law from Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto- 2011